The University of Genoa's principal building dates at
least to 1472. In 1554 the Jesuits received a monoploy on higher
education in the city. In 1634 Francesco Maria Balbi, a Jesuit,
planned a grandiose "College of Jesuits," designed by Bartolomeo
Bianco da Como.

The Jesuit College was
built on the side of the hill rising steeply from the road, so it was
conceived vertically. Completed early in the eighteenth century, it became the
property of the Republic in 1775, after the suppression of the Jesuit
order. The portal and monumental staircase flanked by massive lions
are noticeable even from the street.